Sun & winter

This has been a strange winter so far. At first it was warm, than it got really cold, and some places got a nice, not to thick blanket of snow. This kind of weather stayed all the way to the New Years. Back home we even got snowy Christmas. It almost felt as past winters when we didn't have to think about global warming, and all that mattered to us kids was the amount of snow it would fall. As these things usually go the winter didn't stay like that- SW winds brought us warmer weather and rain, and snow blanket soon vanished.
The constant in Ljubljana this winter was virtually no sun. As people who live/lived here know- Ljubljana is tucked in a valley surrounded on all sides by mountains and hills. Which means, that it's often cursed with temperature inversions and fog/low clouds in late autumn and winter. This winter it was especially bad- there were only few days when clouds and fog gave way to some sunshine. You almost get to understand the depressions and other psychological problems cause by light-deprivation in countries near the pole regions. The scientific explanation is, that due to the lack of sunshine not enough of vitamin D can be produced (vitamin D is being produced in skin exposed to sunlight), which in turn causes several health problems including depression. Due to the long nights in winter, working in offices just worsens effects.

Anyways- luckily for us, the sun is winning again. Even in Ljubljana. Yesterday and today were two glorious cloudless days. Wind finally chased the fog, and with days getting longer we finally got a privilege to come from work without the need of artificial lighting. And even have a nice walk outside...
The winter didn't give up yet. It doesn't have to- it's still January, and I'm still hoping for some more snow. But even snowless winter days are so much nicer with that bright orange sphere up there in the sky. You just get a taste of what's to come. Until than- bon hiver people...

The ultimate spectator sport

No, it's not football. It's not basketball, nor baseball. Nor chess. ;-) If you ask me- it's ice hockey. It's fast, rarely ends scoreless, it's not to comercialized. And what's best- you get to have the figting matches if you're lucky- that's two sports in one. ;-)
There were some really notorious fights- tagged with names like "Bloody wednesday". They rarely end up with to much blood. I guess with a sport that fast in a cold arena, surrounded by crowd, you got to feel the head rush. ;-)
OK, here's another legend- the 1987 punch-up in Piestany on junior world ice hockey championship. It was played between Canada and Soviet Union, and at one stage fight broke out. Now the weak link in this game were judges who didn't know how to calm the players down. At one stage they had to turn the lights off in whole ice hockey hall to stop the fighting- another first in history I think. The end result- game was terminated and both teams were expelled from competition, which hurt Canadians more than Russians- Canucks were fighting for the gold. Oh, BTW, the end result of the (unfinished) game was 4:2 for Canada.

It's (another) foggy day...

As things usualy go good things don't last long. Like with weather- we had a great white Christmas, plenty of snow for New Years. And what we have today? Rain and fog. :-/

I know- talking about weather isn't really most interesting thing to talk about, but sometimes it just gets to me. I can survive hail storms, constant heat, humidity, but once snow begins to melt it's like EVERYTHING starts to irritate me.
There's been a lot said about effect of weather on our behaviour. As with measuring animal intelegency you can always interpret data in many ways. The effect of weather on physical and psychological condition of people has been quite well documented to the point that weather forecasts contain bio-forecasts. It's not well understood how and why this happens, but we know it does. As sunny weather and high pressure tend to have good effect on human beings, the change of pressure and gray skies affects us in more negative ways. There are always extremes- in our part of the world it's foehn winds bringing sudden hike in temperature, and more unpleasant effects on human beings- depression and higher suicide rates in days this wind is blowing. Foehn winds are by now means only weather-behaviour-affected phenomena- there are Chinook winds in North America, and many more.
The weather itself is not the major cause of our mood, but it can merely amplify the mood. Which basicaly means- if you tend to be depressive- moving far North or far South with long nights during winter won't do any good... Nor moving somewhere where it rains a lot. On the other hand- it wouldn't be interesting if we'd all live on the Equator in a hut on a sunny beach, would it? ;-)